Blood Sausages and future plans....

FRIDAY

Friday night while hanging at the tienda drinking a beer, the neighbor across the street (Alfonzo) sent the vigalente to come and gather the gringos and take them to his house, the only explanation was that he had something to show us. The problem was we were waiting for some friends to come to our house and since they had never been there we needed to keep an eye out for them. But really, there was no explaining this as we were ushered into our neighbors dining room.

We were told to sit down and try some rellena (blood sausage) but before they had finished their sentence we saw out the window that our friends had arrived. These were Canadians who had never been to Cali and we had really ever met them once. So we called them from the cab and tried to explain to them the situation. A pretty good welcome to Cali or Colombia in general.

We told our neighbors (that we barely knew, except for the daily hello) that we were off to a restaurant for dinner but we would love to try a LITTLE. They didn't get the hint and the plate was stacked a mile high with blood sausage and fried yucca. I was scared by the looks and the name but I knew I had to eat some. And it was pretty tasty. We told them how good it was and they insisted we eat more...it was awkward for sure but I guess we got to try something new. Read below for the actual description of rellena.

Rellena is a sausage made by cooking down the blood of an animal with meat, fat or filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The Colombian version is stuffed with rice and vegetables and some are deep fried (of course)

Our Dinner Guests: While traveling in Ecuador we met a really cool guy and his son at the Ecolodge, we really seem to hit it off. He and his wife were both international teachers and were currently living and teaching in Quito. They happened to be coming to Cali for some work at the British school, so we had made plans to hook up.

Wine and appetizers on our roof top and then off to a nice spot in our neighborhood. It was a really nice night. It was refreshing  to conversate with like minded people. We drank wine, at good food and laughed a lot.

One conversation that we continued from Ecuador was about the previous teaching jobs in the Middle East. Since talking with them, Aaron and I are considering making our next International teaching destination in the Middle East.

It is not an easy decision and it is not yet a decision at all but we realize that there are some major advantages to working over there. A goal for us is to save money to buy a house in the states. And how else can a teacher save for a house (or at least part of a house) in two years?  Also, there is the benefit of exploring a new area, including Europe and Northern Africa. The downside of course is that we would be living in a compound in the Middle East and would have little interaction with the people and the culture (much different from our experience here.)

Yet, another upside is we would be working in a real International school (our school is NOT an International school, rather it is a Bi-lingual Colombian school.) Which means the students, the expectations and the structure will be totally different. According to this couple (who taught in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for 6 years) it is a cush life where you are really taken care of. Anyway, it is hard to say what will happen but it was a really interesting look inside that world and something we are considering.

SATURDAY

Despite the cheap wine hangover on Saturday morning, we still rallied to join our friends to climb our local mountain (which Aaron does every weekend.) But this time we were shown a new route that climbs the mountain via stairs, which my friends tell me is the better route for toning the but. It was a casual hike and a relaxing way to spend the day. It is urban hiking since the trail is busy and the top is full of vendors selling delicious fresh squeezed juices...my personal favorite mandarin and carrot.

Marce, Aaron y Viviana in front of Cali's skyline

 Friday night we headed to a town in the North called Dapa. This is the same town we had visited the tea farm and the same town we had gone rock climbing. But this time we were going for food, drinking and dancing. It is a windy dark road that climbs into a much cooler climate. It become kind of sketchy when it started to pour and the windows steamed up, it was hard to see and hard to breath And at one point we had to get out so the car could make the climb up the steep driveway (the motor on this car was tiny!)

It was an amazing view and fun company (these are a group of people we met back in September when we were on a trip, they are an awesome mix of Colombians and international people who are living in Cali, these people are always up for exploring and partying...just our type of people!) we played lots of games and shared some funny cultural differences. It was freezing by Cali standards so we drank hot chocolate with cheese to stay warm.

SUNDAY- No time for rest this weekend, we rose early on Sunday for another Paseo (trip) to a region in the north to find this amazing river we had heard about. None of us new exactly where it was except it was near a small town called Ginebra, so we started there and finally found it just about an hour outside of the town. The pictures say it all....

Getting caught in the rain on the walk to the river, Aaron made us some organic umbrellas.

Piedra Puente (Rock Bridge) the view from the top.

Inside the cold water of the gorge. Behind us is a really strong waterfall and the water we are standing in has a really strong current.

Climbing up the slick rocks, slick from bird poop. There were these really interesting birds that sing in the rain, I never figured out what they are called in English.

Aaron preparing to jump...check out the poop in the bottom left hand corner.

The riverside hut (the only thing in miles) serving up Sancocho and other fried treats, including fried cow lungs, which were good in a way.